There's So Much Of Home In You
by DeliriousMess
Summary: A gift fic of sorts for Compactor. A combination of two prompts she sent me: "I'm pregnant" and "Things you said on our honeymoon" as well as something that I'd been thinking about for a couple of days, which was just a conversation between Duke and Jennifer about how things would be different if certain things didn't happen.


Jennifer would never fully know how Duke had swung it, but lounging in a bathtub that was basically a condensed hot tub, with a bottle of very good wine in a very expensive bottle (the acquisition of which she decided was not her concern-all that mattered was the smile Duke had had when he gave it to her) sitting expectantly on the counter across from her, in a very pricey hotel that she couldn't even pronounce the name of in a country on the other side of the world from the town she'd learned to call home, she decided that she didn't really care.

She had laughed embarrassingly loudly when the tub reached the point where the jets could start without making any sort of terrible sound, and even more loudly when she saw how big the bubbles from the small amount of body wash she'd used as substitute bubble bath had gotten because of the jets. She was almost positive that this was where bathtubs went when they died. She knew that she had-more than once-remarked to Duke that she missed being able to take full, proper baths since she'd made the Rouge her home. Duke had, initially, only made jokes back at her in response-mostly pertaining to how _cozy_ the shower was, and how much he genuinely enjoyed that, especially since he'd implemented the "no showering alone" rule. So when he had opened the bathroom door to show her this tub, she all but leapt into his arms in excitement.

She closed her eyes and sank a little deeper into the tub, letting the jets work on her shoulders. She may have also told him that the tub was one hundred percent hers until they left the hotel, but if he asked really _really_ nicely, she'd consider sharing it with him.

She didn't know how much longer she had just on her own-Duke had left a little over an hour and a half ago for a "business" thing (again deciding that the less she knew about it, the better, and Duke had never been particularly forthcoming when it came to talking about his business ventures to begin with)-and she was starting to wonder when she could technically start to worry about him. Well, except for the part where she'd started worrying about him as soon as he left. She knew he had failsafes in place should something go _really_ wrong, and she knew how to act on those failsafes when they presented themselves, but _knowing_ what to do and actually _doing_ those things were two entirely different things. She absently placed a hand on her lower belly, rubbing it lightly with her thumb, and tried not to wonder how some of those failsafes would have to change in the future.

She hadn't told him yet, not sure how to breach the subject. She'd only known for about three weeks, unable to figure out a way to slip away to a clinic of some sort to confirm what the cheap drugstore test had told her. She needed to be _sure_ before she told him. She knew she had time, perhaps not a great deal of it but time nonetheless. She didn't want this to be something that seemed like she was hiding from him and she had no idea when he'd start putting two and two together and ask her about it, thus potentially putting an end to their honeymoon.

Their honeymoon had consistently been extended since they first left Haven going on six or seven months ago, and she was well aware about the underlying _why_ to it, even if Duke wasn't particularly forthcoming about that either. To be fair, though, she hadn't _explicitly_ asked why he was so adamant about letting this vacation last so long. There just always seemed to be something else he wanted them to do before they were done; "I bet you've never heard of this market in Myanmar" or "We could go through the Suez Canal; there's something I bet you've never done" or "We could spend your birthday in Rio-you'd love it there" or "If we just take a little detour a little further north, I could show you the Northern Lights" or, her personal favorite on this "Greatest Hits" collection, "Haven's always going to be there; let's just enjoy the world a little longer."

That one, at least, was closer to his true intentions.

She knew that he was wary about going back to Haven, about having _her_ back in Haven-the process of losing and getting each other back would never be far enough in the past for either of them-and, in all honesty, she wasn't in all that much of a hurry to go back either. She had grown to love Haven, truly, but when she thought about going back, about being in the town that tried to kill them both over and over again-well it was just easier to avoid it than to go back. Besides, she had always wanted to see the world, and to be able to do it with the man she loved, on his own boat, often with him as a guide, and at their own pace was much more than she could've ever hoped for in all her years of dreaming about this.

But if there was going to be a third, considerably more dependent party involved in their little world tour, then it was probably time to start thinking about something a little more permanent.

Or at least having it on the table as a possibility.

She sighed and tilted her head back against the edge of the tub, squeezing her eyes more tightly closed. She needed to stop thinking about this before she started thinking about all of Duke's potential reactions. It really was too bad that she couldn't enjoy some of that very expensive wine sitting on the counter. That would certainly distract her. Or at least make it so she didn't care about anything else.

She opened her eyes and sat up. She was about to nervously check her cell phone for easily the sixtieth time since she'd climbed into the Bathtub of the Gods for any messages from Duke, when the bathroom door opened, and there he was. Apparently sixtieth times was the charm.

He leaned against the doorframe, all smiles and tired eyes as he looked at her. His shirt was unbuttoned, revealing one of his usual undershirts, and his sleeves were rolled up, as he rasped, "Hey beautiful."

She grinned, noting that there were no signs of him being in a fight on the skin she could see and took that as a good sign that the "business" had gone well. Or, at least, well _enough_. She tried to keep the true level of her relief in check on her face-he noticed, though-and slid from the middle of the tub to the side closer to him, "Hey yourself-I was starting to worry."

He smirked at her as he moved to perch on the edge of the tub, trying to keep the true extent of his exhaustion from her as he sagged a bit into the spot-she noticed, though, "You weren't _starting_."

She scrunched her nose at him playfully and tried to inch a little bit closer to him, " _Fine_ , so I _started_ worrying when you told me you had a-," she brought her hands up, now covered in bubbles, and mimed air quotes at him, "-'business' thing."

"How did that go, anyway?" She asked as he chuckled at her. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them to her, leaning against them closer to him.

He grimaced-it was a flash of a grimace but a grimace nonetheless and one she definitely saw-before moving his expression back to something more neutral, shrugging dismissively, "It's done now. That's what matters."

"Hm." She hummed back, tilting her head back in a single nod towards him, mouth eschewed to one side in skepticism. She wasn't sure how they ended up being so consistently careful about showing each other their weaknesses-wasn't that what made them work?-but she at least knew that they would find their way to talking to each other like they needed to. They had all the time in the world for it.

He tried to give her his best disarming smile (though he knew that it very rarely worked on her) as he looked back at the tub she was in, brow furrowing as he asked, "How long have you been in here?"

"When did you leave?"

He pressed the center button on her cell phone that was sitting on the same edge as he was, to display the digital clock on it. After quick math, he answered back, "Six-thirty?"

"About half an hour, forty-five minutes." she shrugged.

"What?" he laughed, "Is the water even still warm?"

She grinned, lightly splashing some of the water next to her, "Why yes it is! My husband got me a room in this _super_ fancy hotel where the tub is one-," she ticked the items off on her fingers, "big enough to do laps in, and two; self-heating."

He smiled at her, leaning down a bit towards her, "Well that's one hell of a husband you have there. You should figure out a way to reward him."

She reached up and grabbed the lapel of his shirt to pull him that much closer to her, "Oh don't worry, I have a few ideas."

It was a brief kiss, but that didn't stop Duke from reaching up to cup her cheek or finally seeming to relax a bit more into it-something she took as a good sign. When they pulled apart, he tucked one of the strands of hair that framed her face, and refused be confined to small ponytail she'd tied at the back of her head, behind her ear. Her face was a bit pink from the heat of the tub and more of her curls clung to her forehead and the back of her neck. Her hair wasn't long enough yet for her to be able to put it into a bun at the top of her head-something that she swore to him was how she could tell her hair was a good length-but it was still considerably longer than when they first met, much to Duke's unending enjoyment.

"You should get in here before he comes back," she quipped around a smile and nuzzled her nose against his. Her eyes were still half-lidded as she looked from his lips to his eyes and back.

He scowled at her, "That's not funny."

"It's a little funny," she smiled, shifting to rest on her knees and to perk up a little closer to him, and dipped her head a bit to kiss his neck.

He kept his scowl in place, but she kept smiling at him once she pulled back until he finally just rolled his eyes at her. He kissed her forehead as she giggled at him, sighing through his nose and closing his eyes as he did to ground himself in her presence before pulling away more as he assessed that she was still the three most important things to him.

 _Safe._

 _Real._

 _Here._

He stroked her cheek with his thumb and looked at her.

She pulled her lips into her mouth for a moment, before finally smiling at him, "So. Care to join me?"

He smirked, pulling back further to eye her suspiciously, "Not if your husband plans on coming back."

She made a face at him in response, not offering an answer, though they both knew he had her.

"Besides," he continued, "do you even think there's that much room in there?"

She chuckled, "You worried my massive girth is gonna take up all the extra room?"

He tsked at her, "Yes, all hundred and twenty pounds of your _massive girth_."

She laughed outright at that, "Look, it hasn't escaped my attention that you are considerably taller than me-in fact it's one of your selling points-"

"'Selling points'?" he arched an eyebrow at her.

"- _but_ ," she continued, undeterred by his attempt to distract her, "I think I have enough room in here for you _and_ an entire swim team in this thing."

"You been entertaining swim teams since I've been gone?"

She made a face at him, "Would you stop that and just get in here? I want to be with you."

He chuckled at her and stood to undress. She momentarily turned the jets off and stood, moving to make room for him once he finally climbed in to join her. She tried to keep her gaze appreciative as her eyes traveled over his body-as far as she could see, there weren't any injuries that needed attention; not even a bruise-before meeting his eyes and giving him an indulgent smile. He probably knew what she was doing, but he probably also knew that she _needed_ to it-for her own sake more than for his. She held her hands out to him to steady him as he climbed in, which he readily took, and climbed in. She squeezed his hands, grinning up at him before noticing that his hair was still tied up and tsked.

She reached up to undo it but he brought his hand up to stop her, grabbing her hand gently and holding it against his chest, "You don't have _your_ hair down."

She gave him a mock scowl, "I'm not the one who _clearly_ needs to relax."

"Speaking of," he glanced over his shoulder towards the counter and the bottle of wine, "should I open that?"

Her heart leapt in a slight panic at that suggestion but she played it off as best she could, "Not right now-let's just let the bath works it's magic, okay?"

He pulled his lips into his mouth, and eyed her for a moment, but he didn't say anything, letting the subject drop there, though she could sense that he was starting to internally question some of her recent behavior changes. But, for the moment, he was willing to let it go. He let her hand go and, for the moment, she just tucked one of his own unruly strands of hair behind his ear. She led him down to sit with her in the water, turning back on the jets, though at a much lower speed, and guided him to lean back with her on the opposite side of the tub from where he had climbed in. They settled so that her back was against the jets and he was leaning back against her in between her legs with her knees bent in the space between his arms and torso. He absently rubbed her legs under the water-she was right, it was still very warm and that combined with leaning against her, being surrounded by her, made him feel the most relaxed he'd been all day. She worked his hair out of his ponytail gently, letting the hair band roll down to around her wrist, and started running her fingers through it, loving how he immediately melted into her and the small noises of contentment that were just barely audible that he made as she did.

"There," she sighed, absently rubbing his shoulder with her free hand, the other hand still running through his hair, "isn't this better than that little shower on the Rouge?"

"You're not gonna get me to talk trash about my first love," he mumbled.

She chuckled, "Okay, but are you _comfortable_?"

"Very."

"Good."

He rested his head back on her shoulder, turning his head slightly so his forehead was pressed into her neck. They sat in the slight quiet of the room, just the faint hum of the jets and whatever easy listening music she'd forgotten she'd had playing filling the slight silence between them so it wasn't oppressive. She continued to rub the muscles in his shoulder as she carefully ran her fingers through some of the knots in his hair. Most of it had grown back to being closer to the length she liked, but it was still a little shorter than she preferred. She started to hum quietly, whether to the song that he could just barely hear or to a tune completely different from it, he couldn't really tell. It didn't really matter, though, and he found that he didn't much care. Because she was safe, and here, and real.

"Are you happy, Mrs. Crocker?" He sighed gruffly, breath fanning across her chest. He was more tired than he was willing to admit to her, and being like this with her was only making it more pronounced, whether he actively admitted it or not.

She laughed and turned her head to kiss his forehead, moving her hand from his shoulder to wrap her arm around him and give him a gentle squeeze, "I am so _beyond_ happy, _Mr_. Crocker. And not just because of the Olympic Pool bathtub."

He breathed out a laugh, bringing his left hand up to give her arm a responding squeeze, "I'm glad. I'm sorry that business pulled me away from our honeymoon."

She moved her right hand from around him to back under the water to find his on her leg, and threaded her fingers with his a bit awkwardly, since she was trying to hold his hand from the back. She kept a steady rhythm of running her fingers through his hair and matched it with her thumb stroking his under the water, "Duke, it was only for a couple of hours- _if_ that-and it's not as if you have some sort of terrible corporate job where you're constantly on your phone or laptop and even seeing me naked isn't enough to get your attention."

"Are you saying that me getting a corporate job would cause you to be naked more often? Because I can get behind that." Duke grinned at her as she laughed at him, "I think I got someone at one of those Fortune five hundred companies who owes me a favor or two-I'm sure I could get something figured out."

"Let's," she managed to say around her laughing, "let's just keep you as a 'flavored coffee commercial' kind of guy for now."

"Hm," he hummed back, turning his head more against her neck and tilting his head back a little to kiss her neck as best he could, earning a delighted hum back from her. He moved his left hand back under the water to her leg again, "bet you didn't know I could be that kind of guy when you first broke me out of the hospital."

"Well you certainly were full of surprises-which only got _worse_ the more I got to know you-,"

"You have a weird way of saying ' _better_ ,'" he interrupted.

She rolled her eyes, "-and then there was that whole 'offering to let me live on your boat' thing."

She tilted her head towards him so her cheek was pressed against his head as he countered, "Yeah, but that was part of my grand plan."

She laughed, "What?"

"What, did you think I'd just been waiting until some weird kid with a possession Trouble came along to make a move on you?" He grinned, moving his left hand further up her leg until he was squeezing her thigh, earning a wonderful squeak from her as he did, "No no no, even if that _hadn't_ happened, I still would've seduced you and I can _guarantee_ that we'd still end up right here, if not a little bit sooner."

"Oh really?" She giggled at him, fighting the urge to move her leg out of his hand-especially since he was moving it _again_ with a much more implied nefarious purpose, "And what did this master "wooing" plan entail?"

" _Seducing_." Duke corrected, mockingly stern, "I am not a "wooing" sort of man."

"Don't we think highly of ourselves." She chuckled.

He eyed her, unimpressed, "Hey, you should just be glad that that nurse didn't fall madly in love with me before you showed up-who _knows_ where you'd be right now if _she'd_ been the one to help me."

She rolled her eyes, "That's right. You could Mr. Nurse Ratched right now."

He grimaced, apparently fully imagining _that_ scenario, "That's not funny."

"That's hilarious." she laughed, a bit more exaggeratedly than necessary in Duke's opinion.

He scowled at her, and she could see he was on the brink of pouting so she got him back on topic, even going so far as to press her left leg against his side gently to prompt him to continue, "So if Puppet!Duke hadn't kissed me, you still would've invited me to stay on the Rouge, and then what? What was your grand _seducing_ plan after that? And just how long had you been working on this plan, anyway?"

He smirked, more than willing to let her change the subject back, "I got this plan all figured out after-well, I mean, it was _finalized_ -Look, Tyler making me kiss you made me realize that I didn't want you to leave, I'm willing to admit that, but I _know_ that if I had been me at the Gray Gull when you came in talking about wanting to leave, I would've figured out a way to stop you."

"And why would you've wanted that?"

He gave her an incredulous look, "Are you kidding? We're _married_."

She nudged him slightly with her shoulder behind his head, smiling a bit sheepishly, "Humor me."

He rolled his eyes but struggled to figure out how to get her to understand, "Because-! You were-I wanted-Ugh, okay, there's a right answer here-Because I _liked_ you. I _cared_ about you. Because there was something happening between us and I wasn't ready to let it-to let _you_ go. Not then, and _definitely_ not now."

She kissed his head down to behind his ear and nuzzled him there, murmuring in a sing-song voice and slightly swaying him, "You _liked_ me, you wanted to _keep_ me."

He laughed, "Again, we're _married_."

"I know!" she said in a normal voice, "Because-," she went back to singing, "You _liked_ me, you wanted to _keep_ me."

"You are such a nerd."

She made to try to bite his ear, earning an exaggerated yelp from him. She laughed before prompting him, "So then what _was_ the plan exactly?"

He shook his head, mumbling something about questioning his decisions before quickly explaining, "It would've been _small_ things-I had you pegged as a small gestures kind of woman the second I saw you. I was well on my way to that on your...what was it, your _third_ morning on the Rouge? We were at the Gull, it was just before your interview with the Teagues-"

She smiled fondly, smoothing his hair back from his face, all her previous rambunctiousness momentarily quieted, "I remember."

He exhaled sharply around a smile, enthusing, "'You look _fantastic_.'"

She knew what he was doing as she turned her head to kiss his forehead again, mumbling the responding "Thank you" against his skin.

"And then I touched your hand as I told you that I was glad you were staying in Haven," he pulled their still entwined right hands out of the water and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand, "remember?"

"I do. Was that all part of the grand plan?" She giggled.

"You remember them, don't you?" He grinned.

She rolled her eyes at him but she was still smiling. She chose not to tell him that she had thought about that hand touch and the way he'd looked at her that morning for the rest of the day and maybe for the days following. He was already too damn smug for his own good, she didn't want to add to it.

"See I had it all planned out by that third day-if certain... _events_ hadn't happened," she didn't ask him to clarify what he meant by "events," "I would've offered to help you gather your whole life up for the the Teagues-with some sparkling commentary on my end about how ridiculous they were being in asking for all that from you-and then a celebratory dinner comprised of some of your favorite foods once they told you you had the job."

Jennifer laughed incredulously, "And _how_ would you know my favorite foods?"

" _Obviously_ from the night we spent going over pretty much every other detail of your life-how little game do you think I have that I wouldn't be able to think of subtle ways to learn more about you over the course of _that_ conversation?" He asked, equally as incredulous.

She laughed at him, "Of course, what was I thinking."

"The insult of it all," he chided, still grinning.

"So a single dinner would've _seduced_ me?"

"I said you were a 'small gestur _es_ '-" he put extra on the "s"-"kind of woman. Of course there would've been more."

She shifted slightly under him, sinking them both a little further under the water, and moved both her hands so they rested against his chest, "Tell me."

"Well if other _events_ hadn't happened," he continued, "we'd've started making having dinner a moderately consistent thing, I would've learned what your favorite songs were and maybe how to play them on the ukulele-because while I love you, you are also such a _sap_."

She playfully batted his head at that, earning a laugh from him as he continued, " _Then_ , maybe I'd've gotten you to dance with me, maybe we'd just keep talking, either way I'd start casually touching you, gauging your reaction each time. Then, finally, when the moment was right, I would've kissed you-all real and fully _me_ this time."

She mockingly tsked her tongue at him, "Make me work for it."

"You trying to say I'm not worth it?"

"If I had _truly_ thought that," she teased, "I doubt very much we'd be sharing a tub right now, much less a _bed_."

He mockingly sneered at her, but continued, "Well _then_ , depending on how well that went-which, let's be honest," he then gestured at his body, a self satisfied grin on his face.

She rolled her eyes so hard that she actually tilted her head back with it, even mumbling, "Oh my God."

He laughed, undeterred by her less than enthusiastic response, "Then, I'd either take you to my room or start something slow with you-all with you calling the shots. After, I'd've slowly moved you into my room officially-probably without you even noticing it-I can be very sneaky-all to keep you as close as possible. Then, all that would be left would be figuring out a way to show you that I thought that every day I got to be with you was something special and something I wasn't sure I deserved."

She brought her hand up to his chin to move his head towards her to kiss him, slow and deep, trying to get him to understand that she knew all that, that she loved him for that, that she loved him for more than that. He kissed her back, giving back just as much as he was given, even if the angle was still awkward. He absently tightened his arms around her legs and she responded by squeezing her legs around him slightly.

She pulled away to press her forehead to his and opened her eyes first-she always opened her eyes first-and watched him, never not giddy at the way it took him longer to come out of the kiss than her; like he was committing each one to memory before he opens his eyes again.

"I'm pregnant."

It wasn't much more than a whisper. She wasn't sure why she decided to tell him now, like this, but there it was, hanging in the air between them and waiting for him respond.

"What?" it wasn't much of a reaction, but she knew she'd dropped something pretty big on him. He moved to get out of her arms so that he could turn to look at her and she let him, though part of her ached that he was suddenly out of her arms when she was already so worried about what he would do.

She swallowed, hugging her legs to her chest in an unconscious defensive position, as she rambled, "Or, well, I mean-I'm pretty sure that I'm pregnant. I took like six of those drug store tests and they all seemed pretty sure that I'm harboring secondary life-but I haven't had a chance to go to like a clinic or something to be sure so there's a chance that I'm not but it's been three weeks and-"

"Three weeks?" he interrupted.

She flinched, mistaking his interruption as coming from anger, "I wasn't trying to keep it from you, I just wanted to be _sure_ before I told you but it's been so long and I feel like I've been hiding something from you and I know we've never talked about kids or what we'd do with or for one-but I...I want this."

He didn't say anything for a moment looking from her face down towards her stomach. Slowly, he moved his hand towards her, towards her belly, and she unfolded for him, even going so far as to guide his hand to rest approximately where their child was growing. She covered his hands with hers, trying to feel what he was thinking through it.

The silence was killing her.

"Duke?" she could barely whisper, "What are you thinking? Please talk to me because I'm...I'm a little scared of this and how you'll react-or won't react and I love you please, please talk to me the silence freaking me out."

"A baby." he said quietly, still staring at the water where his hand was hidden.

"Yes." she said, still unsure how to read him.

" _Our_ baby."

She tightened her grip on his hand, suddenly hopeful and unsure whether or not she should be, and nodded, "Yes."

He finally looked at her, a smile tugging at his lips as he shifted his hands to pull her closer to him in a kiss. He moved the hand that had been pressed to her belly to her neck and his other hand to her hip to drag her to him until she straddled him. She ran her fingers through his hair, prompting him to tilt his head back as she rose above him. This caused the kiss to turn hungry as he wrapped an arm around her waist to guide her legs to wrap around his.

She laughed against his lips, pulling away breathlessly, "Easy tiger; that's how we got into this situation to begin with."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," he all but growled.

She beamed at him, "So you're happy? We're okay?"

"What?" he seemed genuinely confused, "Of course I'm-Jennifer, you want this, that's what you said, and you're right, we never talked about kids or anything like that but you want this, and I want what you want and I'm-I'm so _beyond_ happy, Jen. I promise."

"I love you, Mr. Crocker." she grinned, voice breaking with how elated and relieved she was.

"I love _you_ , Mrs. Crocker."


End file.
